


And Everything Nice

by PotionsMistressM



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-08
Updated: 2013-11-08
Packaged: 2017-12-31 20:18:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1035962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotionsMistressM/pseuds/PotionsMistressM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle has become obsessed with watching TV shows about weddings.  Gold needs to deal with this situation ASAP.  Written for a challenge at lj's onceuponaland.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Everything Nice

"Belle... Dearie, your breakfast is getting cold." 

"I'll be right there! This is almost over!" Rumplestiltskin sighed and lazily waved his hand over the kitchen table where heaps of eggs, bacon, and toast sat uneaten and forlorn. It was the second time he'd had to magically reheat it. He supposed he really could take Belle her breakfast in the living room, but then again he really had no intention of feeding her new and oh-so-very-annoying habit.

It was his fault, after all. At least, it had been in the beginning. Learn the new technology, he'd said. It will be fun, he'd said. You _love_ learning, he'd said. And so, after showing her how to operate the television and cable box, the first channel he'd shown her was The Learning Channel.

Which, as it turned out, was absolutely false advertising.

The only things Belle had learned from The Learning Channel were the wedding customs of this world, and Rumplestiltskin was even shaky on whether those were accurate (honestly, how could someone rightfully spend _that much_ on one day of their life?). But after only one rainy afternoon spent on his couch with Ruby Lucas, it seemed that Belle had been hooked by the station's seemingly endless barrage of wedding programming.

There was a show about picking out wedding dresses in a shop in New York, one about picking out wedding dresses in Atlanta, one where the guy from the New York show traveled the country picking out dresses for other women, one about picking out _bridesmaids_ dresses, and Belle's personal favorite- a competition where catty brides ranked other brides' weddings in the hopes of winning a honeymoon. At first it had been a nice diversion, a good way for Belle to occupy herself in between books, but as of late it had become an unavoidable certainty. Last week he'd asked her if she'd like to go out to dinner, and she'd actually smiled hopefully up at him, taken his hand, and asked if he wouldn't really rather stay in and order a pizza. Friday was _Bride Day_ , after all. In the end he'd been unable to deny her, and though he'd been able to enjoy the pizza and the time curled up with her on the couch, by the third episode of "Say Yes to the Dress," he'd felt an intense urge to bang his head against the wall.

She wasn't hinting at anything with this fascination, he knew. Belle was mature and confident enough to know that if she wished to discuss their future together all she had to do was ask (though, dear God, what was he going to say when she finally did ask?). Storybrooke was very different from their home, and even back there Belle had never really felt the need to conform to the roles that were expected of her. She felt completely comfortable living with him, and even though he was sure he knew she wanted more eventually, they were both content to simply _be_ with each other for a while.

But she was also a girl. A girl who, despite her pragmatism and logic, was still a completely hopeless romantic. A girl who sighed at the sight of pretty white dresses with miles of tulle and barrels of sparkles. A beautiful girl who could be distracted by pretty, shiny things and dreams of things that might be some day. Once she had sighed as a bride stepped out of a dressing room, "Oh, she looks like a _princess_!" Rumplestiltskin had been sorely tempted to bark at her that Snow White _was_ a princess, and if Belle wanted to see one so badly she could just take a walk to the Elementary School, but the way his love's eyes lit up as she watched the mystical princess dress had stalled the snark in his throat. If anyone within sight was a real princess, it was his Belle.

A sharp, victorious cry went up from the front of the house, and despite himself Rumplestiltskin had to smile. Belle was passionate, he had to give her that, and she every often favored one of the contestant brides on the competition show more than the other three. She was also very often disappointed, though, since her favorites were usually the nice women and for some reason the nice women tended to have the smaller, less expensive weddings- which usually proved to be the losing weddings as well. Smiling broadly, Belle padded barefoot into the kitchen, still in her pajamas with her hair piled and knotted sloppily on the top of her head. No beauty pageant contestant, but Rumplestiltskin had rarely seen a sight more gorgeous.

"Ooh, thanks, Rumple," she murmured as she sat across from him and smelled the coffee in front of her. "Everything looks so good." He couldn't resist the urge to mock her one more time, though.

"It would have been better when it was first prepared," he quipped with a smirk, though he knew she could tell the food had not been allowed to cool and that she could just as easily scold him for using his magic. But she only smiled a bit sheepishly and answered around a mouthful of eggs.

"I'm sorry. I just had to see who won."

"I'm guessing by your squealing that your favorite won?"

And at that, Belle launched into an animated and passionate recounting of the winning wedding- the bride had been a police officer who had made chocolate handcuffs to give to her guests.

"Doesn't that sound like fun," Belle asked, "handcuffs?"

Rumplestiltskin choked on his toast, his mind clearly not thinking of edible wedding favors. 

"Oh, yes," he agreed as he cleared his throat. "Quite a lot of fun..." Belle caught his smirk and blushed before bursting into a fit of giggles herself. He was almost sure he caught the words "dirty old man" muttered under breath in the midst of her laughter, and it only made his smile all the more wicked.


End file.
